Iowa Speedway was seemingly a decent day for the Chevrolets. Four of their cars finished inside top 10 at the Iowa Corn 350. Ross Chastain seventh, AJ Allmendinger eighth, William Byron ninth, and Austin Dillon tenth. At a shallow look, those results read well. But the problem is that Toyota’s Ty Gibbs won the race, Christopher Bell finished second, and not one Chevrolet driver contended for win. Dillon noticed that and shared his take on positive trend heading into Richmond race weekend.

“Iowa was a good weekend overall for Chevy to get four cars in the top 10, but that’s not what we’re used to,” Dillon said. “We’re used to seeing Chevrolet be competing for wins consistently. So as a whole, there’s a lack of performance there.”

That’s a major admission. Dillon is an integral player in one of NASCAR’s oldest organisations and the grandson of Richard Childress. It goes beyond a single team traversing a difficult period when he claims that all of Chevrolet’s major partner teams are having the same issue. The problem affects the entire manufacturer.

The numbers back his story. Through 23 races in 2026, Toyota leads all manufacturers with 14 wins. Chevrolet has six. Hendrick Motorsports, historically Chevy’s strongest operation, has just two wins this season. Their highest-ranked points driver, Chase Elliott, has already been mathematically eliminated from winning the regular season title.

Furthermore, Dillon did not shy away from where the problem is most visible. “When we go to these mile-and-a-halfs, to be quite honest, sometimes we’re lost,” he said. “We are just trying to figure things out.”

Intermediate tracks, the 1.5-mile ovals that make up a big chunk of the Cup schedule. And the post-season Chase is lined up with intermediate tracks like Kansas, Las Vegas, Charlotte, and Homestead. And again the JGR teams have made good progress already on this track type. On the flip side, Chevy teams have had to deal with a major change this year.

For 2026, Chevrolet introduced an updated Camaro ZL1 body. It was designed and wind-tunnel tested specifically to generate high downforce. Then NASCAR implemented a new rules package that stripped a significant amount of downforce, particularly at short tracks. Given the resources a team like HMS have at their disposal, they are struggling to find speeds that can get them back into contention.

Toyota had no such timing problem. Their current car body has been in competition since February 2024. Chevy teams are still collecting baseline numbers where Toyota teams are dialing in final adjustments. Dillon does see a way forward on the shorter tracks though.

“From a short-track perspective, when we go with more horsepower, less downforce, we compete a little better,” he said. “I see light at the end of the tunnel.”

He has reason to believe that. Dillon won back-to-back August races at Richmond Raceway in 2024 and 2025, heading into this weekend chasing a third straight win at the same track. The bigger task, as Dillon put it, is what comes after.

“I think that’s key for us this last portion of the season, is to figure out how to consistently have more speed at that body style, that mile-and-a-half, bigger track,” he said.

Until Chevrolet solves that, four top-10 finishes with no win is going to keep feeling like a step short.